60 th Congress, ) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, j Document 
Sd Session. ) j No. 1464. 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PRINTING INVESTIGA¬ 
TION COMMISSION TRANSMITTING REPORT RECOMMENDING 
CERTAIN LEGISLATION RELATING TO THE PRINTING, BINDING, 
AND DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 


February 19, 1909.—Referred to the Committee on Printing and ordered to be 

printed. 


\^' Printing Investigation Commission, 

Washington , February 18, 1909. 

Sir: 1 have .the honor to transmit herewith a report from the Print¬ 
ing Investigation Commission, embodying recommendations in rela¬ 
tion to codification, revision, and amendment of the laws relating 
to the public printing and binding and the distribution of public 
documents. 

Respectfully, T. Ci Platt, 

Chairman Printing Investigation Commission. 

The Speaker op the House of Representatives. 


Report from the Printing Investigation Commission. 

Section 5 of a joint resolution approved June 23, 1860, formed the 
legislative basis of the present printing law, and upon this the law, 
such as it is, was constructed. The last attempt at revision is known 
as the “ general printing act,” approved January 12, 1895. This did 
not assume to be a complete codification, and there were no specific 
repeals. The ten years of its operation were characterized by an in¬ 
crease in expenditures for the public printing and binding, as shown 
by a comparison of such expenditures for the fiscal year 1905 with 
those of 1895, of $3,577,048, or 102 per cent. This is due in part at 
least to the fact that the revision of the law left remaining many 
conflicting provisions, but more to the fact that the amendments to 
this revision, many scores in number, have tended to destroy any 
spirit of harmony or consistency which may have characterized the 
revision itself. 

THOROUGH REVISION NECESSARY. 

A study of the history of this legislation reveals the fact that it 
has originated chiefly in recommendations from three distinct sources: 
First, from the Public Printer; second, from the various executive 









2 REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 

departments and bureaus; third, from officers of Congress; the author 
of each recommendation apparently viewing the subject only from 
his own standpoint, regardless of the complicated machinery of dis¬ 
tribution contained in the general printing law, and regardless of 
conflicting or related provisions of law. Much of this legislation 
has been recommended to Congress by committees other than the 
committees of the Senate and House which are charged, under the 
rules of these bodies, with the consideration of these matters, and 
while the printing law probably covers to-day 60 pages of the statutes, 
the decisions of the comptroller and the opinions of the Attorney- 
General in relation thereto would fill a large volume. It may not be 
improper to state in this connection that the decisions of the Comp¬ 
troller of the Treasury alone, since May 1, 1906, involving construc¬ 
tions of the law in relation to the public printing and binding, on 
submissions by the Public Printer and various executive establish¬ 
ments, have been 52 in number, occupying more than 200 typewritten 
pages, not all of which have been printed. 

As a further result, the law can not, as it stands, be intelligently 
codified without thorough revision, nor can it even be efficiently in¬ 
dexed. These somewhat caustic comments on the existing printing 
law have been voiced by trained and experienced men who have 
attempted both, and who have confirmed the view which the com¬ 
mission itself has long entertained. 

When the commission, four years ago, began the work which Con¬ 
gress imposed upon it, it undertook first the correction of the more 
glaring abuses in the public printing and binding before undertaking 
any general revision of the printing laws. It was the policy of the 
commission from the beginning to build a printing law by distinct 
parts which could later be intelligently codified. In order ^o render 
possible in the end a proper codification of the printing law, many 
existing provisions should be specifically repealed. In fact, in the 
opinion of the commission, this treatment of the subject will be neces¬ 
sary throughout the entire revision work. This will be readily under¬ 
stood when it is recalled that the present printing legislation is the 
growth of nearly seventy years, many of the earlier enactments being 
still upon the statute books, wholly or in part inoperative because im¬ 
possible of application to existing conditions, or in conflict with other 
provisions also assumed to be in force. 

In the opinion of the commission printing and binding involving 
large expenditures has been executed at the Government Printing 
Office in the last fifteen years, not only without warrant of law but in 
direct contravention of law. Much of this printing and binding 
was necessary to the public service, and the service would have been 
seriously embarrassed if the orders for such printing had been dis¬ 
regarded by the Public Printer. This absence of legal authority 
for what is necessary to the public service is likely to lead if it has 
not already led to abuses, both in Congress and the executive estab¬ 
lishments, which should not be possible. This condition has been 
m part, already remedied by legislation recommended by the com’ 
mission and approved March 1, 1907, but many further corrections 
are necessary. In view of these conditions, and the conditions stated 
on pages 1 and 4 of this report, and in former reports of the 
mission (S. Kept. No. 2153, 59th Cong., 1st 


No. 6828, 59th Cong., 2 d sess.). the' co 7 nm!^on ^has'rVconimended 


com- 

Pept. 


MM' ? |c 

•**. • v* Qt Po 


1909 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 3 

and Congress has approved legislation that will enable the Joint 
Committee on Printing to protect the printing service against any 
serious embarrassments in the execution of the printing and bind¬ 
ing pending a complete revision and codification of the laws relat¬ 
ing thereto. This commission is of the opinion that in the meantime 
the attention of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and of the several committees of the Senate 
and House charged with consideration of appropriations relating to 
the public printing and binding, should be invited to the importance 
of referring to the committees of their respective Houses, or to the 
Joint Committee on Printing, for their consideration, any amend¬ 
ments to existing law proposed to be incorporated in appropriation 
acts. 

GROWTH OF PRINTING EXPENDITURES. 

The cost of the government printing in 1840 was approximately 
$200,000. About this time Congress apparently began to give serious 
attention to these expenditures. But the expenditures showed not only 
a rapid but continuous growth until they amounted in 1905 to $7,084,- 
670, almost equal to those of the great Department of Agriculture; 
more than the federal funds appropriated for the maintenance of 
the District of Columbia government; double the amounts carried in 
the diplomatic and consular appropriation acts. 

The Government Printing Office was established in 1861, when the 
cost of the public printing was approximately $850,000. It was es¬ 
tablished to meet the requirements of Congress, and resulted in im¬ 
proved conditions. The annual expenditures had increased in ten 
years, under the contract system, more than 150 per cent, and were 
characterized by public scandals and numerous investigations. In 
the earlier years of its history the work of the Government Printing 
Office was chiefly for Congress. The official in charge of the office is 
appointed by the President, as are the Librarian of Congress and the 
Superintendent of the Capitol Building and Grounds. All are re¬ 
quired to report directly to Congress. The Government Printing 
Office has been nominally under the supervision of Congress through 
a committee representing both Houses, but Congress has been neglect¬ 
ful of its duty in having failed to provide for efficient supervision. 

The revision of 1895 was followed by the most remarkable growth 
in expenditures found in the entire history of the public printing and 
binding. As above stated, the expenditures for 1905 exceeded those 
of 1895 by $3,577,048, an increase of 102 per cent. The increase from 
1850 to 1860, as shown by the expenditures for those respective years, 
was 151 per cent, but in dollars and cents it amounted to approxi¬ 
mately $500,000. 

The expenditures for the public printing and binding, as shown in 
tables submitted herewith, increased from $344,831 in 1850 to 
$7,084,670 in 1905. The population had increased less than four¬ 
fold. The public printing had increased more than twenty fold. 
There had been an uninterrupted increase, the expenditures for decen¬ 
nial years showing an average increase of more than 70 per cent. 
The work of the commission began in 1905. The expenditures were 
increasing at the rate of nearly half a million dollars per year, and 


4 REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 

for the ten years immediately preceding, the increase had been 102 
per cent. The commission has not only stopped this increase, but has 
driven the expenditures backward for the first time in the history of 
public printing, every year of its work showing a decrease in the 
expenditures compared with 1905, the average annual decrease for the 
last three years exceeding 10 per cent, notwithstanding the establish¬ 
ment of new bureaus and many new requirements for printing. 
Under the ten-year ratio of increase, from 1895 to 1905, the expendi¬ 
tures for 1908 would have been $9,493,457 instead of $6,774,267, or 
$2,719,190 more than they actually were. 

The following tables illustrate this growth from 1850 to 1905 and 
the effect of the legislation formulated by the commission: 


Comparative statement of annual expenditures for the public printing and 
binding by decennial years from 1850 to 1900, with statement for 1905 and 
succeeding fiscal years. 


Fiscal year. 

Expendi¬ 

tures. 

Increase. 

Decrease. 

1850.. 

$344,831 
866,8G8 
1,609,859 
2,034,750 
3,124,462 
4,990,325 
7,084,670 
6,377,639 
5,954,660 
6,774,267 



I860.-........ 

$522,037 
732,991 
314,691 
1,089,712 
1,865,863 
«3,577,048 


1870. 


1880. 


1890... 


1900. 


1905. 


1906... 

b $607,031 
6 1,130,010 
6 310,403 

1907. 


1908... 





a Comparison with 1895, in which the expenditures were $3,507,622. 
6 Comparison with 1905. 


Percentage comparison of expenditures for public printing and binding. 



Increase. 

Decrease. 

1850 to 1860..... 

Per cent. 
151 
84 
19 
53 
60 
102 

Per cent. 

I860 to 1870... 


1870 to 1880...... 

1 1 
i : 

! ! 
1 1 

1 1 
1 l 
i 1 
1 t 
1 1 
1 1 

1880 to 1890... 

1890 to 1900.... 


1895 to 1905... 

- 

1905 to 1906.......... 

8 

la 

4 

1905 to 1907......... 


1905 to 1908......... 





Average annual decrease for three years, compared with 1905, 10 per cent. 


INVESTIGATIONS OF THE PUBLIC PRINTING. 

There have been since 1840 seventeen congressional investigations in 
relation to the public printing. In almost every instance some radical 
abuse was discovered and reported upon, but the remedies were left 
for a succeeding Congress to discover. These inquiries usually re¬ 
lated to charges of extravagance or maladministration, not infre¬ 
quently involving the official integrity of the Government Printer 
and in at least one instance that of the chief ministerial officers of the 
Senate and House of Representatives. In addition there have been at 
least four investigations by the executive branch of the Government. 

Congress, instead of making such provisions as would insure effi¬ 
cient supervision and enable its committees and the Public Printer to 






















































REPORT OP PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 5 

carry forward a policy at once consistent and progressive, has, in 
effect, left each new committee to take up the subject for themselves, 
not where the work of the retiring committee ended, but where it 
began. 

The subject was complex, in some respects technical, and the com¬ 
mittee which attempted to master it found little time, if any, for other 
work. In this connection the commission has found nothing in the 
records which better describes its own experience than the remarks of 
Mr. Gorman, a Representative from Indiana, in the debates of July 
15, 1852, in the course of which that gentleman, addressing the Chair, 
said: 

I hope, sir, that after having disposed of this public printing I shall be per¬ 
mitted to withdraw from this vexed question. I have never in my life had a 
public duty to perform in which I had so many conflicting elements to meet. 
I have never discharged a public duty with a more conscientious regard for 
the public weal and the service. * * * After I have discharged my duty and 

get the public printing once fixed upon a permanent basis, I shall ask the kind 
indulgence of the Chair to discharge me from further service on that committee. 
It is a committee upon which any gentleman who discharges his duty lays 
himself open to the constant criticism of his kindest and best friends. 

In view of the many subsequent investigations which have occupied 
the attention of Congress, it is but fair to assume that Mr. Gorman 
was overconfident in his belief that he would in fact settle this 
problem. 

SURPLUS COPIES OF PUBLICATIONS. 

The commission found at the beginning of its work an enormous 
surplus of publications in practically every executive establishment, as 
well as under the distributing offices of Congress. Lack of proper 
supervision over matters of public printing seems to have been equally 
apparent in the legislative and executive branches of the Government. 
Careful measurements and computations, conducted by competent 
engineers, showed in storage in February, 1906, more than 9,500 tons, 
much of which was entirely worthless except as waste, and there were 
large quantities of surplus printing which it was not possible to in¬ 
clude in these computations. These facts have been previously re¬ 
ported to Congress by the commission. For purpose of illustration, 
it may be stated that these documents, if their transportation had 
been necessary, would have required a train of ordinary freight cars 
approximately 3 miles in length. The commission, in order to stop 
this accumulation, recommended, and Congress enacted, a law pro¬ 
viding for the printing of government publications in editions, 
as would be done by any private publisher, instead of printing a 
fixed number, as the law "had previously provided. This enactment 
of 1906 empowered the Joint Committee on Printing to adopt and 
enforce such regulations as would make the law effective. Under 
the authority thus conferred the Joint Committee on Printing in the 
following year curtailed the printing of this surplus by nearly 
300,000,000 printed pages; to be exact, 279,598,837, the equivalent of 
559,197 volumes of 500 pages each. There was in connection with 
the Congressional Record alone a saving of $42,728, on the Yearbook 
a saving of $37,598.73, and on the publications of the Geological Sur¬ 
vey, provided by law for distribution by Congress, a saving of 
$1*9,691.60. This last-named item last year was even more gratifying, 
amounting to $37,513.47, after allowing for the cost of all reprints. 


6 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


These results are all the more encouraging when it is remembered 
that these curtailments constituted what had been before an entirely 
undistributed surplus. 

This surplus was further reduced by a joint resolution recom¬ 
mended by the commission and approved January 15, 1908. Prior 
to that date publications intended for distribution to depository 
libraries were withheld for binding and did not reach the libraries 
until from one to three years after the date of their publication. In 
the meantime Senators and Representatives and the various executive 
departments were called upon to supply copies to these libraries. 
Later, when the copies intended for them were received, the others 
were returned to the superintendent of documents. 

Already approximately 3,000,000 volumes of surplus have been pro¬ 
posed for condemnation and sale as waste, having occupied valuable 
space and having constituted a menace to the safety of one of the build¬ 
ings in which they were stored. It is proper, however, to state that these 
documents were first offered to approximately 8,000 libraries, to the 
various executive departments, and to the document rooms of the 
Senate and House of Representatives. This accumulation will be 
stopped through the operation of the legislation heretofore referred to. 

BULK APPROPRIATIONS. 

For more than thirty years the appropriations for the public print¬ 
ing and binding have been in bulk, without being limited to certain 
specific uses, as in the case of the appropriations for the various execu¬ 
tive departments. This, in the opinion of the commission, has led to 
gross extravagance, if not to censurable abuse. There appeared to 
be no relation between the estimates submitted to Congress and the 
expenditures from appropriations based thereon, but made in connec¬ 
tion with appropriations for other necessary expenditures without 
any of the usual limitations. In 1907 the estimates for machinery, 
etc., were $90,000, and the expenditures were $388,253.81. In 1908 the 
estimates were $80,000, and the expenditures in the first six months 
were $498,373.64, or more than six times the estimate for the entire 
year. The commission has recently recommended that in future 
appropriations for the public printing and binding there should be 
some approach in this respect to the limitations placed upon other 
appropriations. 

In view of the condition above stated, the Joint Committee on 
Printing on May 25, 1908, adopted a resolution, which was certified 
to the Public Printer, requesting that in relation to purchases not 
included in annual contracts, when the estimated needs of his office 
exceeded the sum of $1,000 the Joint Committee on Printing be con¬ 
sulted in advance of purchase when Congress was in session and 
the Secretary of the Interior when Congress was not in session. This 
resolution, which related chiefly to purchases of machinery, and 
which specifically excepted contracts for illustrations, etc., was in 
harmony with existing provisions of law in relation to open-market 
purchases of paper. 

SUPERVISION OVER MANUSCRIPTS. 

Another glaring abuse was found in the fact that the various execu¬ 
tive departments and government establishments to which appropria¬ 
tions and allotments of appropriations for printing were regularly 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 7 

made were permitted to transmit their reports to Congress and to 
have them first printed at congressional expense without charge to 
their own appropriations for composition, electrotyping, illustration, 
etc. They were transmitted without even a pretense of estimate of 
cost. Single reports costing in excess of $60,000 were printed for the 
departments by Congress, and even the heads of the bureaus from 
which they emanated, much less the heads of departments, had no 
knowledge and were not required to have knowledge of the original 
cost of these publications. Under the operation of the policy rec¬ 
ommended by the commission, many of the departmental publica¬ 
tions have been reduced in volume more than one-half, and in other 
instances department heads have requested to be relieved of the fur¬ 
ther publication of certain reports. 

The effect of this enactment may be further illustrated by the state¬ 
ment that the expenditures on account of composition and illustration 
of publications alone were reduced in 1907, as compared with 1905, 
by $287,435.18. And it may be further stated that the total expendi¬ 
tures on account of publications for the fiscal year 1907, the first year 
of the operation of these new provisions of law, were reduced approxi¬ 
mately 19 per cent, or in excess of $800,000. This is the feature of 
the public printing with which the commission has chiefly dealt. 
These figures, in so far as they relate to printing for executive depart¬ 
ments. are based upon official statements of the departments from bills 
rendered and. as far as they relate to the printing and binding for 
Congress, are based upon official statements of the Public Printer. 
It should be further stated in this connection that the printing ex¬ 
penditures for 1905 and for 1907 were measured by the same stand¬ 
ard—namely, the schedule of charges which had not been changed. 
Owing to conditions over which the Joint Committee on Printing 
had no control no comparative statement of the product of the Gov¬ 
ernment Printing Oflice for 1908 will ever be possible. This was due 
to the operations of The Audit System in the office, which were termi¬ 
nated by the commission. The Public Printer states, in his annual 
report for 1908, relative to certain tables, the following: “ Owing to 
the manner in which the records of the office were kept under the 
direction of The Audit System it is impossible to make up the in¬ 
formation for this table as heretofore submitted.” This statement 
occurs in relation to four tables heretofore submitted with the report. 

SCHEDULE OF CHARGES. 

An act to provide for executing the public printing and establish¬ 
ing prices thereof, and for other purposes, approved August 26, 1852, 
fixed a scale of charges under which the public printing and binding 
was to be performed. The general provisions of this act were super¬ 
seded by a joint resolution approved June 23, I860, under the pro¬ 
visions of which the Government Printing Office was established. 
The official in charge of the Government Printing Office has ever 
since exercised without restraint discretion in fixing charges for the 
work performed. For twenty years prior to the last fiscal year the 
schedule of charges remained practically the same. Such changes as 
were made from time to time were imperceptible in their general 
effect and never seriously disturbed any appropriation or allotment 
of appropriation fixed by Congress. The total expenditures of the 
office, however, came to exceed the total charges for work performed. 


8 


EEPOET OF PEINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


This excess for eight years, from 1900 to 1907, inclusive, amounted 
to $7,962,307.94, almost $1,000,000 per year, which in any commer¬ 
cial establishment would have been charged to the account of profit 
and loss, less the amount which might have been accounted for as 
plant improvements. 

However, the largest expenditures properly chargeable to plant 
account in any one year occurred in 1904, amounting to $598,140.70. 
The average for the period above named Avas $323,287.11 per year. 
It has been customary for the executive departments to base their 
estimates for printing and binding upon the averages of their past 
experience. Congress, guided by the same policy, fixed the printing 
appropriations and allotments. The Public Printer, without notice 
to or consultation with any department or office charged with super¬ 
vision over these appropriations or allotments, in November, 1907, 
arbitrarily changed the rate of charges, increasing them in some in¬ 
stances more than 50 per cent. Upon complaint of the departments 
an investigation was ordered and the report thereon directed atten¬ 
tion to the matter of the importance to the departments of being 
thereafter advised of such proposed changes long enough in advance 
to readjust their estimates and secure a corresponding readjustment 
of appropriations. Subsequently, a more general investigation and 
report in relation to affairs of the Government Printing Office also 
directed attention to this subject, with a similar recommendation. 

A change in the head of the office in June, 1908, after the appropria¬ 
tions for the current fiscal year had been fixed in the law, resulted in a 
further arbitrary exercise of this power conferred upon the Public 
Printer to fix upon the product of the office any charges which might 
suit his fancy. When this last change in the schedule of charges was 
proposed, the Public Printer was advised by telegram that the subject 
was regarded by the commission as one of such importance that the 
secretary of the commission had been directed to confer with him upon 
it. While the commission had no power to restrain the Public Printer, 
it indulged the hope that he might be persuaded to avoid the error 
which had within a year been so fatal to the administration of his 
predecessor in office. Notwithstanding the official reports on the subject 
heretofore referred to, and notwithstanding this kindly warning of 
the commission, the Public Printer proceeded Avithout hesitation in 
the arbitrary exercise of his poAver. As a result, the integrity of 
every appropriation and allotment of appropriation fixed by Congress 
was destroyed. Appropriations and allotments of appropriations 
fixed by Congress were changed in some respects more than 50 per 
cent, and the average of these changes for the first three months of 
the fiscal year, as applied to the entire product of the office, was 
approximately 8 per cent. In the opinion of the commission the law 
which vests this power in the Public Printer without restraint in 
effect delegates to that official the poAver vested in Congress to fix 
appropriations. Necessarily Congress and its committees in dealing 
with problems so complex must insist upon conditions that will be as 
nearly stable and uniform as legislation and proper administration 
may afford. Congress has neither the time nor the opportunity to 
intelligently adjust the questions of dispute which must arise Avhen 
an appropriation is thus unsettled. The commission, as well as the 
Committees on Appropriations, are asked from time to time to con¬ 
sider and adjust questions arising from these arbitrary changes which 
should not consume their time. 


REPORT OP PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


9 


In order to afford even an approach to a continuous comparative 
record of the public printing and binding for the various departments 
and bureaus of the Government, and in order that Congress might in¬ 
telligently consider future estimates, it became necessary for the com¬ 
mission to direct the Public Printer to supply to the commission the 
results of a comparative computation upon the entire product of the 
office, based upon the new schedule of charges and upon the schedule 
previously in force. Therefore, in the opinion of the commission, the 
schedule of charges m force at the Government Printing Office should 
not be entirely subject to individual discretion. These charges can 
not properly be determined in detail by statute, but they should be 
subject to such regulation and restraint as the Joint Committee on 
Printing may properly impose. 

Congress as well as the departments should be forever protected 
against the possibility of a recurrence of these incidents of the past 
two years. The commission therefore recommends legislation which 
will provide for the establishment of a schedule of charges in rela¬ 
tion to the principal items of cost of the public printing and bind¬ 
ing, which shall be subject to regulation by the Joint Committee on 
Printing. The Public Printer would naturally be consulted to the 
fullest extent in the establishment and regulation of such charges, and 
the legislation recommended would, in the opinion of the commission, 
not only relieve Congress, but the Public Printer and the various ex¬ 
ecutive departments from many questions of dispute which have here¬ 
tofore needlessly consumed the time of all. 

BINDING OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 

The commission in the course of its inquiry has received many com¬ 
munications from librarians in charge of the important libraries in 
relation to the binding of public documents and reports. Since the 
establishment of the Government it has been customary to bind these 
publications in leather bindings (principally sheepskin). Radical 
changes in the methods of tanning, which became general nearly fifty 
years ago, have been disastrous to the permanency of these bindings. 
Librarians and publishers have been gradually substituting other ma¬ 
terials. Notwithstanding frequent and exhaustive discussions in the 
conventions of the American Library Association, and notwithstand¬ 
ing the frequent appeals for relief which came to Congress from those 
in charge of the official files of government publications distributed 
throughout the United States—publications which remained the prop¬ 
erty of the Government in the custody of the libraries—the law pre¬ 
vented any relief from this condition by reason of the fact that it 
specifically provided that these publications should be bound in 
sheepskin. 

The commission, under date of February 5, 1907, addressed a com¬ 
munication to the librarians in charge of the principal libraries of 
the United States, as well as to others whose expert knowledge on 
this subject would afford the basis of an intelligent expression. The 
experts whose opinions were invited were unanimously in favor of 
some binding other than sheep. The librarians, who were not pur¬ 
chasers, but merely custodians, and who were specifically requested 
to disregard considerations of cost, were practically unanimous in 
their desire for a change to materials much less expensive. The cost 
of sheep binding applied to the publications intended for distribution 


10 REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 

to the depository libraries for the Fifty-eighth Congress, as shown by 
an estimate from the Public Printer, was $128,500, and the estimated 
cost of the binding which the commission finally recommended would 
have been $38,880. Legislation on this subject was secured by the 
commission and, under provisions of a joint resolution approved 
January 15, 1908, conferring authority upon the Joint Committee on 
Printing to regulate this binding, the Public Printer has been directed 
hereafter to use buckram, after a sample agreed upon by representa¬ 
tives of the American Library Association in conference with repre¬ 
sentatives of the Library of Congress, the Director of the Bureau of 
Standards, who conducted the tests applied to various samples sub¬ 
mitted, a representative of the commission, and others. The commis¬ 
sion will report to Congress separately in detail upon this branch of 
its inquiry. 

ANNUAL REPORT OF PUBLIC PRINTER. 

The Public Printer is required by law to report annually to Con¬ 
gress upon the operations of his office. The annual report of this offi¬ 
cial has been in practically the same form for more than twenty years. 
A careful study of its contents leads to the unavoidable conclusion 
that it was originally designed to obscure rather than to enlighten. 
There is no information in any annual report of the last twenty years 
that will afford the slightest clew to the comparative product of the 
office, except as the charges to Congress and the departments for work 
performed will afford a basis of calculation. These charges were 
based upon a schedule that was fairly uniform for a considerable 
period. In other words, the yardstick of price is the only possible 
standard of measurement. In view of these conditions, the commis-. 
sion, after consultation with accountants of the Government Printing 
Office, suggested certain classifications calculated in their nature to 
afford a comparative analysis of the product of the office from year 
to year, as well as a comparative analy-sis by bureaus of the work 
executed for them. 

In the meantime such data was obtained as would afford the possi¬ 
bility of comparison in many important respects of the printing of 
future years with that of the fiscal years 1905, 1906, and 1907. This 
proposed classification will not be a difficult task, and most of the in¬ 
formation required has been carried in the records of the Government 
Printing Office for many years. With the beginning of the present 
fiscal year these records were so amended as to afford the opportunity 
for carrying what later, in the opinion of the commission, will afford 
a satisfactory statement of the annual product of the office. In rela¬ 
tion to the year 1908 no comparison of the product of the office will 
ever be possible, owing to the operations of the Audit System. The 
commission in the legislation herewith recommended to Congress 
provides for a fiscal report, and for a statistical report by depart¬ 
ments, from the Public Printer, which shall be submitted to' Congress 
under such arrangement and classification as the Joint Committee on 
Printing may approve, and imposes at the same time upon the various 
executive departments the necessity of supplying to Congress a report 
by bureaus upon their printing operations, to be supplied upon blanks 
which shall be also subject to the approval of the Joint Committee 
on Printing. The object of the commission will be to relieve the Pub¬ 
lic Printer of the necessity of classification by bureaus and place upon 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 11 

the various departments the necessity of supplying these bureau re¬ 
ports, with a view to inducing a closer supervision by the departments 
themselves, and affording the heads of departments opportunity for 
intelligent analysis of the printing operations of their several bureaus. 
While placing upon the Public Printer the necessity of slight addi¬ 
tional expenditures by reason of these requirements, it proposes in its 
recommendation to relieve him and the office of the superintendent of 
documents of the necessity of reporting in detail much that has been 
of no value either as information to Congress or as a check upon ex¬ 
travagance; so that in the end the clerical assistance necessarj^ to con¬ 
form with the requirements of the report which the commission has 
contemplated would, instead of being increased, be materially re¬ 
duced. At the same time every safeguard has been carefully pre¬ 
served. 

A further advantage of requiring the form of this impor^mt re¬ 
port to be subject to the approval of the Joint Committee o^Print- 
ing will be to avert the possibility of a recurrence of the experiences 
of the last fiscal year which have rendered impossible any report 
upon many important operations of the office specifically required 
by law to be furnished, and from which requirements the Public 
Printer recently requested to be relieved. It will still further insure 
such adherence to fixed forms as will remove the chance of further 
reckless experimentation in bookkeeping and accounting methods 
based upon individual caprice, and insure such stability and uni¬ 
formity in records as will afford the opportunity of analytical com¬ 
parisons. 

REIMBURSEMENT OF APPROPRIATION FOR THE PUBLIC PRINTING AND 

BINDING. 

Section 87 of the general printing law approved January 12, 1895, 
directs that the printing of the various executive departments shall 
be performed at the Government Printing Office, “ except in cases 
otherwise provided by law.” The appropriations for the public print¬ 
ing and binding under control of the Public Printer are for wages, 
materials, etc. Credits thereunder are allotted to the various ex¬ 
ecutive departments without reference to the several provisions re¬ 
quiring public printing carried in other appropriation acts. While 
it has been the practice to reimburse the appropriation for the pub¬ 
lic printing and binding for the cost of labor and materials neces¬ 
sary to the work executed on account of other appropriations, there 
is no specific provision under which this has been done; and although 
the comptroller has apparently never been called upon for a ruling 
on this practice, it is believed by the commission that if placed be¬ 
fore him for decision there would not be found any specific provision 
of law under which the Public Printer could disburse the amounts 
received for such work. 

There was performed at the Government Printing Office during 
the fiscal year 1907, under appropriations not under control of the 
Public Printer, but made to departments specifically for printing and 
binding, $243,754.29, and for printing chargeable to appropriations 
authorizing printing, but not made specifically therefor, $247,213.68, 
a total of $490,967.97; and these authorizations for printing required 
by law to be executed at the Government Printing Office, involving 
expenditures from appropriations made for wages, materials, etc., are 


12 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


found in the appropriations for almost every government establish¬ 
ment. There was also executed on private orders and for speeches, 
etc., under authority of law, work involving expenditures appro¬ 
priated for wages, materials, etc., amounting to $67,635.76, but under 
a decision of the comptroller the amounts received for the latter- 
mentioned work were not available for disbursement by the Public 
Printer for labor, materials, or other expenses of the Government 
Printing Office, but were deposited in the Treasury to the credit of 
miscellaneous receipts. If the disbursements of the office on account 
of wages, materials, etc., are to be compared with the product of the 
office, and if the charges for the product of the office upon this show¬ 
ing are to be compared with the charges for work performed by 
private establishments, the proceeds of this work should reimburse 
the appropriations for public printing and binding, and legislation in 
accordance with this principle is embodied in the recommendations 
of the commission. 

SAVINGS EFFECTED BY COMMITTEE ON PRINTING. 

The performance of the supervisory duties imposed upon the Joint 
Committee on Printing under a resolution approved March 30, 1908, 
is effecting annual savings amounting to approximately $400,000. 
These savings relate entirely to surplus printing which has heretofore 
accumulated in warehouses to be eventually sold as waste. Under the 
operations of the act of March 1, 1907, much valuable time has been 
saved to both Houses of Congress in affording relief from the con¬ 
sideration of trivial matters of printing, and the printing require¬ 
ments of Congress have been more promptly met and much surplus 
printing has been prevented. Under the provisions of the joint 
resolution approved January 15, 1908, regulating the binding for 
depository libraries, the committee effected savings exceeding $40,000 
per year. In all, the Joint Committee on Printing, through its 
supervisory regulations alone, are annually saving to the Government 
considerably more than half a million dollars. And no Senator or 
Representative can say that the committee has robbed him of any 
discretion over a single copy of any publication which he had ever 
previously exercised. 

RECOMMEN DATION. 

The commission respectfully recommends the enactment into law 
of the provisions embodied in the accompanying draft of bill. 

Respectfully submitted. 

T. C. Platt. 

S. B. Elkins. 

W. H. Milton. 

C. B. Landis. 

J • B. Perkins. 

D. E. Finley. 


DRAFT OF LEGISLATION RECOMMENDED. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled , That the Public 
Printer shall, on the first day of each regular session, submit to Con¬ 
gress a report covering the operations of the Government Printing 
Office for the preceding fiscal year, showing all available appropria¬ 
tions and the condition thereof, the receipts and credits from all 
sources, and the total charges for work executed, together with a 
statement of the allotments of the appropriation for the public 
printing and binding, transfers to the credit thereof, special appro¬ 
priations, and the charges thereunder. 

Par. 2. The report shall contain a list of all contracts made for 
paper for the public printing and binding, and a statement of the 
purchases thereunder, indicating separately, purchases under annual 
contracts, emergency purchases approved by the Joint Committee on 
Printing, and emergency purchases approved by the Secretary of the 
Interior; and a statement of the kind, quantity, and cost of the paper 
on hand on June thirtieth shall be included in the report. 

Par. 3. The report shall also contain a classified statement of pur¬ 
chases for maintenance, for equipment, for operation, for material 
other than paper, entering into the product of the office, and for sup¬ 
plies, and a classified statement of expenditures for miscellaneous 
purposes, distinguishing the purchases and expenditures under 
annual contracts from those otherwise made; a statement of the cost 
of all lithographing, engraving, or other illustration, showing in each 
instance whether procured by contract or otherwise; a statement of 
the cost of all supplies purchased under the provisions of an act ap¬ 
proved June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and two, and found 
in chapter thirteen hundred and one of volume thirty-two of the 
Statutes at Large, at page four hundred and eighty-one, and the 
charges therefor; a classified statement of the disbursements on ac¬ 
count of wages and salaries, and a statement of the principal classes 
of officers and employees, showing the number of persons of each 
class employed on the last working day in September, December, 
March, and June, respectively; a statement of the disbursements on 
account of leaves of absence, and on account of legal holidays; and 
all statements of purchases or expenditures shall show the appropria¬ 
tions to which they are chargeable. 

Par. 4. The Public Printer shall report, by title, the number of 
copies, the number of pages, and the principal items of cost of each 
publication printed upon requisition of the head of any executive 
department or other government establishment not connected with 
an executive department, or upon requisition of the superintendent 
of documents, and shall submit a summarized statement, classified 
as to standards of size, showing the total number of pages printed, 
the total number of volumes bound, the styles of binding, and the 
totals of the principal items of cost; a classified statement, arranged 

13 


14 REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 

by executive departments and government establishments not con¬ 
nected with an executive department, showing the printing and 
binding executed other than that of publications, and the totals of 
the principal items of the cost thereof. The Public Printer shall also 
submit a like statement of the printing and binding done for Con¬ 
gress, and a statement, by title and number of volumes, of the binding 
done for the Vice-President, Senators, Representatives and Delegates 
in Congress, Resident Commissioners, and officers of Congress, and 
the total cost thereof: Provided , That all publications not exceeding 
one hundred pages, or included in miscellaneous bound volumes, may, 
under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, be stated 
collectively, in their respective classes, without titles. 

Par. 5. The Public Printer shall show in his annual report, by the 
principal items of cost, the expense of operating each branch printing 
office under his control, and the charges for work performed therein 
computed upon the schedule of charges in force in the Government 
Printing Office; he shall include a statement of the cost of operation 
and administration of the office of the superintendent of documents, 
and of the charges for publications supplied to the depository libra¬ 
ries, and, in addition, shall transmit with such report the annual 
report of the superintendent of documents. 

Par. 6. The Public Printer shall supply to each executive depart¬ 
ment and other government establishment not connected with an 
executive department, to the Smithsonian Institution, the Interna¬ 
tional Bureau of the American Republics, and to the Commissioners 
of the District of Columbia a statement, by the principal items, of 
the estimated cost of any printing and binding to be done therefor, 
and the head of such department or establishment, the Smithsonian 
Institution, the International Bureau of the American Republics, 
and the Commissioners of the District of Columbia shall submit to 
Congress, on the first day of each regular session, a classified state¬ 
ment of such printing and binding executed under the direction of 
the Public Printer, showing, by bureaus and offices, the totals of the 
principal items of cost, and, separately, the cost of all printing and 
binding executed elsewhere than at the Government Printing Office, 
or its branches, and supervised at Washington; and the reports re¬ 
quired herein shall be furnished upon blanks to be supplied by the 
Public Printer and prepared in accordance with the requirements of 
paragraph seven of this section. 

Par. 7. The statements required in the foregoing paragraphs of 
this section shall be submitted in a form and according to an ar¬ 
rangement and classification to be first approved by the Joint Com¬ 
mittee on Printing. 

Note. —The annual report of the Public Printer has been submitted in prac¬ 
tically the same form for more than twenty-five years. Aside from the fiscal 
report showing the moneys expended, it affords no clew whatever to the product 
of the office, except as measured by the standard of price. Even this standard 
of measurement has been, within the last two years, changed three times. 
Frequent changes in methods of bookkeeping have also in the last three 
years characterized the operation of the office, and the Public Printer has been 
unable to comply with several specific provisions of law in submitting his report 
for the fiscal year 1908. This important report should not only afford a com¬ 
prehensive statement of the product of the office, but such statement should be 
submitted from year to year in such form as to afford opportunity for com¬ 
parative analysis. The executive departments should be required to submit a 
report on their printing operations, and these reports should be submitted under 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


15 


the same classification as that of the Public Printer. It is proposed that the 
statistical information required in both instances shall be reported in such 
form and under such classification as shall meet with the approval of the Joint 
Committee on Printing. No information will be required of the Public Printer 
In this proposed enactment, except as to classification, not now required by law. 

Sec. 2. That the Public. Printer shall appoint a competent person 
to act as superintendent of documents, who shall receive a salary of 
three thousand dollars per annum, and who shall give bond in the 
sum of twenty-five thousand dollars for the proper accounting of all 
moneys received by him and for the faithful performance of the 
duties of his office, said bond to be approved by the Solicitor of the 
Treasury. The superintendent of documents so appointed is hereby 
authorized to sell at cost any copies of any public document in his 
custody the distribution of which is not otherwise specifically di¬ 
rected, said cost to be estimated by the Public Printer and based upon 
printing from plates; and Avhenever any officer of the Government 
having in his charge public documents published for sale shall desire 
to be relieved of the custody of the same, he is hereby authorized to 
deliver them to the superintendent of documents, who shall receive 
and sell them under the provisions of this section. 


Note. —This paragraph of the section provides that the salary of the superin¬ 
tendent of documents shall be fixed in the permanent law at $3,000 per annum, 
instead of being determined from year to year in appropriation acts. The 
salary fixed in this paragraph is the same as now allowed. This paragraph 
also provides that the superintendent of documents shall give bond in the sum 
of $25,000, subject to the approval of the Solicitor of the Treasury. In the 
absence of any provision of law, he is now required by the Public Printer to 
give personal bond in this amount. The remainder of the paragraph is a revi¬ 
sion and codification, without amendment, of existing law, excepting that the 
present limitation in sales of but one copy to any. one person is removed. This 
provision in the general printing act of January 12, 1895, was intended to pre¬ 
vent any person from securing the entire available supply of valuable docu¬ 
ments. The possibility of this was removed by a joint resolution, approved 
March 28, 1904, authorizing the reprinting of documents for sale. This provi¬ 
sion is proposed for reenactment in the succeeding paragraph of the bill. 


Par. 2. The superintendent of documents is hereby authorized to 
order reprinted, from time to time, spell public documents as in his 
judgment may be required for sale, such order for reprinting to be 
subject to the approval of the head of the executive department, or 
other government establishment not connected with an executive de¬ 
partment, in wffiich such public documents shall have originated, or in 
the case of public documents originating in Congress, subject to the 
approval of the Joint Committee on Printing; and the moneys re¬ 
ceived by the superintendent of documents from the sale of such 
public documents shall be deposited by the Public Printer in the 
Treasury of the United States, and so much thereof shall be credited 
to the appropriation for the public printing and binding as shall 
equal the amount of the cost of such reprinting. 

Note. —This paragraph is a rewriting and codification of existing law, with 
the following amendments: First, the joint resolution of March 28, 1904, au¬ 
thorizing the reprinting of documents for sale by the superintendent of docu¬ 
ments, on approval of the heads of the executive departments, or offices in 
which the documents originated, made no provision for the reprinting of docu¬ 
ments originating in Congress. Under a decision of the Comptroller of the 
Treasury such reprints of congressional documents are prohibited, for the 
reason that no one is authorized to approve. This paragraph provides for the 
reprinting of such documents for sale on approval of the Joint Committee on 
Printing. The remainder of this paragraph is a reenactment of existing law. 


16 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


Par. 3. The superintendent of documents shall have general super¬ 
vision of the distribution of public documents, and to his custody 
shall be committed all documents intended for distribution, excepting 
those printed for the use of the executive departments or government 
establishments not connected with an executive department, which 
shall be delivered to said departments or other government estab¬ 
lishments and those printed for the use of Congress. 

Note. —This paragraph is a revision of section 61 of the general printing act 
of January 12, 1895, to conform with present practice. 

Par. 4. All moneys received by the superintendent of documents 
from the sale of public documents shall be turned over to the Public 
Printer on the first day of each month, and be by him covered into 
the Treasury, monthly, to the credit of miscellaneous receipts, except 
such part thereof as may be credited to the appropriation for the 
public printing and binding under the requirements of paragraph 
two of this section. 

Note. —This paragraph is entirely a rewriting and codification of existing law. 

Par. 5. The superintendent of documents shall submit to the 
Public Printer, monthly, a report showing the number of copies of 
public documents received by him from all sources, the number of 
copies sold, and the total sum received for the same, the number of 
copies otherwise distributed, and the number on hand. He shall also 
submit to the Public Printer, on or before the first day of November 
of each year, a report for the preceding fiscal year containing a re¬ 
capitulation of the monthly reports above required, together with a 
statement of the number of copies, by title or other description, of 
each public document sold by him and the price of the same per copy, 
excepting that sales of bulletins and circulars may be reported col¬ 
lectively in their respective classes. 

Note. —This paragraph is also a rewriting and codification of existing law, 
excepting that it provides that sales of miscellaneous bulletins and circulars 
may be reported collectively in their respective classes, instead of by title, the 
cost of preparing and publishing which report has, in many instances, exceeded 
the amounts of the sales. 

Sec. 3. That whenever the estimated requirements of the Govern¬ 
ment Printing Office for machinery, paper, material, or supplies of 
any kind whatsoever, not included in the annual contracts, or for 
services other than personal services, shall exceed the sum of one 
thousand dollars in any one instancy, purchase thereof or contract 
therefor by the Public Printer shall, when Congress is in session, be 
subject to the approval of the Joint Committee on Printing, under 
such regulations as they may prescribe, and when Congress is not 
in session, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior: 
Provided , That nothing in this paragraph shall be held to contravene 
the provisions of section fifteen of an act providing for the public 
printing and binding and the distribution of public documents, 
approved January twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five. 

Note. —This section provides for the supervision, by the Joint Committee 
on Printing or the Secretary of the Interior, of “ open-market ” purchases, 
those purchases of materials, etc., not included in the annual contracts. 
The purpose of this is to correct what, in the opinion of the commission, have 
been grave abuses in the expenditure of public funds. It is in harmony with 
provisions already existing in relation to open-market purchases of paper. 


REPORT OP PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 17 

Sec. 4. 1.bat whenever an appropriation or allotment of appropria¬ 
tion is made to Congress, to the Supreme Court, to any executive de¬ 
partment or other government establishment not connected with an 
executive department, to the Smithsonian Institution, or to the Inter¬ 
national Bureau of the American Republics, for printing and binding 
to be executed at the Government Printing Office, the Public Printer 
shall cause an account to be opened with such recipient of an appro- 
ation or allottee of part thereof, in which he shall charge for all 
such printing and binding according to a schedule of prices to be 
established and regulated under the direction of the Joint Committee 
on^ Printing, and it shall be unlawful for him to cause to be executed 
printing or binding to a greater amount of cost than the amount 
appropriated or allotted for such purpose. 

Note.— This paragraph is a rewriting of existing law except that it provides 
for the establishment and regulation of a schedule of charges to be applied to 
the product of the Government Printing Office. The purpose of this, as else¬ 
where recited in this report, is to prevent the possible recurrence of conditions 
which have unsettled appropriations and to remove from the control of an indi¬ 
vidual official the opportunity for further arbitrary exercise of the power now 
vested. It is believed that it will operate not only for the protection of Con¬ 
gress, and particularly its Committees on Printing and on Appropriations and the 
protection of the executive departments, but also for the protection of the 
Public Printer himself. Under existing law the Public Printer is vested with 
sole and unlimited power in this regard, the exercise of which has within two 
years led to the most disastrous results and the expense of needless investi¬ 
gations. 

Par. 2. Whenever any executive department or other government 
establishment not connected with an executive department, the Smith¬ 
sonian Institution, or the International Bureau of the American Re¬ 
publics shall require printing or binding to be done under any appro¬ 
priation or allotment of appropriation for printing and binding to 
be executed at the Government Printing Office, an estimate of the 
cost thereof by the principal items shall first be obtained from the 
Public Printer. All orders for such printing and binding shall be by 
requisition made therefor upon said Public Printer, which requisition 
shall in each instance be accompanied by a certificate that the work 
ordered is necessary for the public service; and upon the execution 
of such printing and binding the Public Printer shall debit the cost 
thereof to the account chargeable therewith under the provisions of 
the preceding paragraph. 

Note.— This paragraph is a rewriting, without amendment, of section 93 
of the general printing act of January 12, 1895, and section 3S02 of the Re¬ 
vised Statutes, both of which it is proposed to repeal. 

Sec. 5. That paragraph six of section one of an act to amend an 
act providing for the public printing and binding and the distribu¬ 
tion of public documents, approved March first, nineteen hundred 
and seven, be amended by striking out the whole of said paragraph 
and substituting in lieu thereof the following: 

“ Par. 6 . Either House may order the printing of a document the 
printing of which is not already provided for by law, but only when 
the same shall be accompanied by an estimate, obtained from the 
Public Printer, of the probable cost of such printing. Whenever 
the head of any executive department or government establishment 
not connected with an executive department, the Smithsonian Insti¬ 
ll. Doc. 1464, 60-2-2 


18 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


tution, or the International Bureau of the American Republics shall 
submit reports or other papers in response to inquiries from Con¬ 
gress, he shall submit therewith an estimate of the probable cost of 
printing to the ‘ usual number,’ and whenever the estimated cost of 
such printing exceeds the sum of five hundred dollars such reports or 
papers shall be printed only upon recommendation of the committee 
to which they shall have been referred. Nothing in this paragraph 
relating to estimates shall apply to reports or other papers not ex¬ 
ceeding fifty pages or not accompanied by illustrations.” 

Note. —This section provides that before either House of Congress may print 
a document the printing of which is not already provided for by law the docu¬ 
ment shall be accompanied by an estimate of the probable cost. It provides 
that when reports or other papers are submitted in response to inquiries from 
Congress they shall be accompanied by estimates of the probable cost of print¬ 
ing, and shall not, if the estimated cost exceed $500, be printed except upon 
recommendation of the committee to which they may have been referred. The 
commission is not of the opinion that any other committee than that having 
jurisdiction over a report should be required to pass upon its importance or its 
character to the extent of determining whether or not it shall be printed, in 
whole or in part. At the same time it does not believe that expensive reports 
should be printed except on reccommendation of some committee having knowl¬ 
edge of their character and importance. The attention of the commission has 
been directed to expenditures in single instances exceeding $50,000, incurred 
without examination or recommendation by any committee. This proposed 
inhibition will apply only to documents exceeding in cost the sum of $500, and 
nothing relating to estimates will apply to any report or other paper not ex¬ 
ceeding 50 pages, unless accompanied by illustrations. This section is a re¬ 
vision of paragraph 6 of section 1 of an act approved March 1, 1907. The 
amendments are, first, requirement of approval of the committee having juris¬ 
diction where the estimated cost exceeds $500; second, that reports of less 
than 50 pages must, if containing illustrations, be accompanied by estimates. 
The enactment as originally passed has operated to enforce closer supervision 
over many reports; in several instances, however, expensive reports have been 
submitted containing less than 50 pages, the expense being involved in illustra¬ 
tions the original cost of which was thus placed upon Congress, the depart¬ 
mental allotments escaping the cost. 

Sec. 6 . That section five of an act entitled “An act providing for 
the public printing and binding and the distribution of public docu¬ 
ments,” approved January twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, 
be amended by striking out the whole of said section and substituting 
in lieu thereof the following: 

“ Sec. 5. The sealed proposals to furnish paper shall be opened in 
the presence of the Joint Committee on Printing, and the contracts 
shall be awarded by them to the lowest and best bidder for the inter¬ 
ests of the Government, but they shall not consider any proposal 
which is not accompanied by satisfactory evidence that the person 
making it is a manufacturer of or a dealer in the description of paper 
which he proposes to furnish, and by a bond of a surety company or 
corporation duly authorized by the Attorney-General of the United 
States under the provisions of an act relative to recognizances, stipu¬ 
lations, bonds, and undertakings, approved August thirteenth, eight¬ 
een hundred and ninety-four, or a bond approved by a judge or clerk 
of a court of record, such bond, in either case, to be in the penal sum 
of five thousand dollars, and conditioned on the bidder entering into 
a contract, if the proposal is accepted, to supply the articles pro¬ 
posed to be furnished.” 

Note.— This section is a revision of section 5 of the general printing act of 
January 12, 1895, and provides that bonds of surety companies or corporations 
accompanying proposals for paper for the public printing and binding shall be 


REPORT OP PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


19 


considered sufficient when such companies or corporations are authorized by 
the Attorney-General to act as sole sureties on bonds to indemnify the United 
States. Full provisions for the protection of the Government are embodied in 
an act approved August 13, 1894, and under the provisions of that act more 
than twenty surety companies are represented by agents in the District of 
Columbia upon whom may be served any lawful process against their respective 
companies. Under the present provisions of law the sufficiency of the bonds 
must be certified by a judge or clerk of a court of record. These provisions 
have frequently resulted in irregularities in proposals believed by the commis¬ 
sion to have been submitted in good faith, but which could not, under the law. be 
considered. 

Sec. 7. That paragraph three of section one of an act to amend an 
act providing for the public printing and binding and the distri¬ 
bution of public documents, approved March first, nineteen hundred 
and seven, be amended by striking out the whole of said paragraph 
and substituting in lieu thereof the following : 

“ Par. 3. Either House of Congress may, by resolution, empower 
any of its committees to order the printing, at the Government Print¬ 
ing Office, of not more than one thousand copies of any hearing or 
matter germane thereto, and upon requisition therefor the Public 
Printer shall print and deliver said copies, and, if requested by the 
committee, shall bind not exceeding fifty copies of the same.” 

Note. —This section is a substitute for paragraph 3 of section 1 of an act 
approved March 1, 1907, providing for the printing of hearings, etc., for com¬ 
mittees. The substitute section also provides for the binding of hearings and 
other papers for the use of committees. There is no such provision in existing 

law. 

Sec. 8. That hereafter the proceeds of any printing and binding 
authorized by law, the cost of which is chargeable otherwise than to 
the appropriations under the control of the Public Printer, shall, 
when such w r ork is performed at the Government Printing Office, be 
credited to the appropriation for the public printing and binding to 
reimburse the said appropriation for the cost of executing such work; 
and the International Bureau of the American Republics is hereby 
authorized to have executed at the Government Printing Office any 
printing and binding required for its purposes, notwithstanding the 
fact that payment therefor is to be made out of funds other than 
those appropriated by the Government of the United States. The 
provisions of this section shall become effective on the first day of 
July, nineteen hundred and nine. 

Note. —This section provides that the proceeds of any printing and binding 
authorized by iaw and executed at the Government Printing Office shall be 
credited to the appropriation for the public printing and binding to reimburse 
the said appropriation for the cost of executing such work. Section 87 of the 
general printing act of January 12, 1895, directs that the printing of the various 
executive departments shall be performed at the Government Printing Office, 
“ except in cases otherwise provided by law.” The appropriations for the 
public printing and binding are for wages, material, etc., and credits thereunder 
are allotted to the various executive departments, without reference to the 
several provisions for public printing required by the general printing act to be 
executed at the Government Printing Office, and requiring expenditure for 
wages and material. While it has been the practice to reimburse the Public 
Printer’s appropriations for the cost of work performed under other appropria¬ 
tions, there is no specific provision of law under which this is done. There was 
performed at the Government Printing Office during the fiscal year 1907, charge¬ 
able to the appropriations made to the departments specifically for printing and 
binding, work to the amount of $243,754.29, and for printing chargeable to 
appropriations authorizing printing, but not made specifically therefor, 
$247 213 68, a total of $490,967.97. These authorizations for printing are found 


20 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


in the appropriations for almost every government establishment. There should, 
in the opinion of the commission, be specified provision under which the appro¬ 
priation for the public printing and binding may be reimbursed for the cost of 
the printing referred to. 

This section also provides that any printing required by the International 
Bureau of the American Republics may be performed at the Government Print¬ 
ing Office, even though payment therefor is made from other than funds appro¬ 
priated by Congress. 

Sec. 9. That the following provisions of law be, and the same are 
hereby, repealed: Sections four hundred and ninety-seven, five hun¬ 
dred, five hundred and five, five hundred and seven, thirty-eight hun¬ 
dred and two, thirty-eight hundred and fifteen, thirty-eight hundred 
and twenty, and thirty-eight hundred and twenty-one of the Revised 
Statutes of the United States; so much of an act to perfect the re¬ 
vision of the statutes of the United States and of the statutes relat¬ 
ing to the District of Columbia, approved February twentv-seventh, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, as amends section thirty-eight 
hundred and two of the Revised Statutes of the United States; the 
resolution numbered twelve, approved June twentieth, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and seventy-four; so much of an act making appropriation for 
the sundry civil expenses of the Government, approved June twen¬ 
tieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, as provides that the Pub¬ 
lic Printer shall furnish an estimate for printing required by any 
department and debit the cost thereof to such department on certi¬ 
fication by the head thereof, the Supreme Court, the Court of Claims, 
or the Library of Congress, that the printing is necessary; so much 
of an act making appropriation for the sundry civil expenses of the 
Government, approved August seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty- 
two, as provides that the Public Printer shall keep an account of 
the actual cost of printing and binding done for the Patent Office, 
and make statement thereof in his annual report; so much of an act 
making appropriation for the sundry civil expenses of the Govern¬ 
ment, approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, as 
provides that the Public Printer shall report to Congress certain 
data; sections twelve, nineteen, twenty-two, sixty-one, and ninety- 
three of an act providing for the public printing and binding and the 
distribution of public documents, approved January twelfth, eight¬ 
een hundred and ninety-five, and that part of section thirty-one of the 
said act which provides that the Public Printer shall show in detail, 
in his annual report, the cost of operating each departmental office; 
that part of the resolution numbered eleven, approved March twenty- 
eighth, nineteen hundred and four, which authorizes the superin¬ 
tendent of documents to order reprinted, for sale, public documents, 
and provides for the reimbursement of the appropriation for the pub¬ 
lic printing and binding from the moneys received from the sales of 
public documents; and all other laws and parts of laws in conflict 
with the provisions of this act. 

Sec. 10. That whenever any document shall be ordered printed by 
Congress,' or either House thereof, or any report from a committee or 
commission of Congress, such order to print shall signify the “ usual 
number ” of copies, and the “ usual number ” shall be construed to 
mean the number necessary to meet the requirements of the distribu¬ 
tion provided for under this section. Whenever a specified number of 
a document or report is ordered printed by Congress, or either House 
thereof, the “ usual number ” shall be printed concurrently therewith, 


REPORT OE PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 21 

w! eSS P rovis 1 ion for the printing thereof has otherwise been made. 
Whenever a document or report is ordered reprinted by the Senate or 
Mouse of representatives, without reference to its Committee on 
Jrrinting, there shall be printed under such order only the number of 
copies provided in the following paragraphs of this section for de- 
livery to the document room of the House from which the order ema¬ 
nates, unless a specified number be named in the order to reprint. 
1 he printing and distribution of reports from committees on con- 
sondated or omnibus private bills shall be governed by the provisions 
of this section regulating the printing and distribution of reports on 
public bills. 

Note. The first section, embracing 8 paragraphs, defines the “ usual num¬ 
ber and codifies the law in relation to the printing and distribution thereof. 
An important object has been to harmonize the authority for printing with the 
provisions for the distribution. The general printing act of January 12, 1895, 
arbitrarily fixes the “ usual number ” at 1,682 copies. In many instances provi¬ 
sions in the law for distribution are without corresponding authority for the 
printing. The “ usual number ” has always been, and now is, variable, ranging 
from 1,864 to approximately 2,500 in certain instances, and subject at all times 
to variation by reason of changes in congressional apportionment laws and 
variations in the number of libraries complying with the depository laws, and 
variations in the requirements of the executive departments, as shown in the 
requisitions which they are authorized to make. 

In the foregoing paragraph the only change from existing law provides that 
when a reprint of a document or report is ordered in the Senate or the House, 
under the rule of unanimous consent, the order to reprint, in the absence of a 
specific number, will be considered to mean the number necessary for the docu¬ 
ment room of the House in which the order is made. Heretofore such order to 
reprint has resulted in the distribution to all the offices of Congress, regardless 
of their needs. 

Par. 2. Of the Senate documents and reports, excepting reports on 
private bills, concurrent and simple resolutions, there shall be distrib¬ 
uted, unbound, to the Senate document room, two hundred and 
twenty copies; to the office of the Secretary of the Senate, ten copies; 
to the House document room, three hundred and sixty copies; and to 
the office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, ten copies. 

Note. —This paragraph is a rewriting of existing law and involves no changes. 

Par. 3. Of the House documents and reports, excepting reports on 
private bills, concurrent and simple resolutions, there shall be dis¬ 
tributed, unbound, to the Senate document room, one hundred and 
fifty copies; to the office of the Secretary of the Senate, ten copies; 
to the House document room, four hundred and twenty copies; and 
to the office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, twenty 
copies. 

Note. —This paragraph is a rewriting of existing law and involves no changes. 

Par. 4. Of the Senate and House documents and reports, excepting 
reports on private bills, concurrent and simple resolutions, there shall 
be distributed, unbound, to the Department of State, twenty copies; 
to the Executive Mansion and to the Library of Congress, each, two 
copies, and to the office of the superintendent of documents, one 
copy, all as now provided; to the Government Printing Office, for 
official use, five copies; to each foreign embassy and legation to the 
United States the government of which extends a like courtesy to the 
American embassy or legation thereto, one copy, as now provided, to 
be supplied upon requisition of the Secretary of State; to the Inter- 
national Bureau of the American Republics, two copies; to each 


22 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 


executive department and to each government establishment not con¬ 
nected with an executive department, excepting the Library of Con¬ 
gress, upon requisition of the head thereof, one copy for each bureau 
or division therein, and the heads of executive departments and other 
government establishments not connected with an executive depart¬ 
ment shall cause daily examination to be made of the Congressional 
Record, for the purpose of noting the publication of documents and 
reports, and shall cause an immediate requisition to be sent to the 
Public Printer for the number of copies required for official use, not 
exceeding the number herein provided; to the superintendent of 
documents, for immediate delivery to depository libraries, in accord¬ 
ance with the provisions of the joint resolution numbered three, 
approved January fifteenth, nineteen hundred and eight, as many 
copies as may be necessary to supply to each of such libraries one copy 
of those miscellaneous documents and reports not of sufficient size to 
be bound separately. 

Note.— This paragraph is a rewriting of existing law, except that provision 
is made for distribution to the International Bureau of the American Repub¬ 
lics of two copies of all documents and reports, excepting reports on private 
bills, concurrent and simple resolutions. 

Par. 5. Of the Senate reports on private bills, concurrent and 
simple resolutions, there shall be distributed, unbound, to the Senate 
document room, two hundred and twenty copies, and of the House 
reports on private bills, concurrent and simple resolutions, one hun¬ 
dred and thirty-five copies; and not less than twelve copies of each 
report on bills for the payment or adjudication of claims against the 
Government shall be kept on file in the Senate document room. Of 
the Senate and House reports on private bills, concurrent and simple 
resolutions, there shall be distributed, unbound, to the office of the 
Secretary of the Senate, fifteen copies; to the House document room, 
one hundred copies; to the office of the superintendent of documents, 
ten copies; and to the Library of Congress, as now provided, two 
copies. 

Note. —This paragraph is a rewriting of existing law and involves no changes. 

Par. 6. Of the Senate and House documents and reports, except¬ 
ing reports on private bills, concurrent and simple resolutions, there 
shall be bound and distributed to the Senate library, fifteen copies; 
to the House library, fifteen copies; to the Library of Congress, for 
its own use and for international exchange, sixty-two copies, except 
as such number shall be increased to not exceeding one hundred 
copies by request of the Librarian of Congress, as now provided; and 
to the superintendent of documents, one copy for each depository 
library. Of the Senate and House reports on private bills, concurrent 
and simple resolutions, there shall be bound and distributed to the 
Senate library, three copies; to the House library, three copies; to 
the Library of Congress, three copies; and to the office of the super¬ 
intendent of documents, one copy. The binding provided for by 
this paragraph shall be done in the manner directed by the Joint 
Committee on Printing, and in the binding of documents and reports 
the Public Printer shall give precedence to those provided for dis¬ 
tribution to libraries. 

Note. —This paragraph is a rewriting of existing law and involves no changes. 


REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 23 

1 ar. <. llieie shall be held in unstitched form, of every Senate and 
Mouse document and report, excepting reports on private bills, con¬ 
current and simple resolutions, one copy for the Vice-President, each 
Senator, Representative and Delegate in Congress, and Resident Com¬ 
missioner, the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of 
J ^ e J ) ^? se ^; a ^ lves ? an d? upon application to the Secretary of the Senate 
ana the Clerk of the House of Representatives, respectively, the Vice- 
^ I ^ S T? er ^^i’ eac ij Senator, Representative and Delegate in Congress, 
and Resident Commissioner, and the officers of the Senate and House 
herein named, shall be entitled to the binding, in half morocco or 
material not more expensive, of not more than one copy of each Sen¬ 
ate and House document and report published during the term of his 
service, which binding shall be done upon requisition of the said Sec¬ 
retary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives, and 
an account of such binding shall be kept by the Secretary of the Sen¬ 
ate, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, and the Public 
Printer, respectively, with each person entitled thereto under the 
foregoing provisions, and when not called for within two years after 
the printing thereof such documents and reports shall be available 
for sale or for distribution to libraries, and for that purpose shall be 
delivered to the Superintendent of Documents in unbound form or 
bound in cloth, as he shall recommend. The Public Printer shall 
also, upon like application and requisition, bind at the Government 
Printing Office any publication, including maps and charts, required 
by law to be printed, or printed upon the order of Congress, or either 
House thereof, or of any committee or commission thereof, or upon 
requisition of any executive department or other government estab¬ 
lishment not connected with an executive department, upon payment 
of the actual cost of such binding. 

Note. —This paragraph provides that there shall be printed, and held in un¬ 
stitched form, copies of all congressional documents and reports, to be bound 
upon requisition of the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives. It provides for the keeping of an account of such binding, as 
is now contemplated. It also reenacts the provision under which, after two 
years from the date of printing, the unbound copies not called for shall be 
delivered to the superintendent of documents for sale or for distribution to 
libraries, and provides that they shall be bound in paper or cloth, as the super¬ 
intendent shall recommend. 

Par. 8. To enable the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the 
House of Representatives to comply with the provisions of paragraph 
seven of this section the superintendent of documents shall, as soon 
as practicable after the adjournment of each regular session of Con¬ 
gress, supply to the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the 
House of Representatives copies of a list, by title and serial number, 
of all Senate and House documents and reports of sufficient size to be. 
bound separately, together with a list of those which are not of suffi¬ 
cient size to be bound separately, and these lists shall be compiled in 
accordance with the official classification and arrangement applied to 
the Senate and House documents and reports distributed to deposi¬ 
tory libraries under the provisions of joint resolution numbered 
three, approved January fifteenth, nineteen hundred and eight. 

Note. —This paragraph provides that the superintendent of documents shall 
prepare, for the use of the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives, a list of documents and reports, by titles and numbers, in 
accordance with the official classification and arrangement adopted for docu¬ 
ments and reports distributed to the depository libraries. 


24 REPORT OE PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 

Sec. 11. That there shall be printed of each Senate and House bill 
and resolution the number of copies necessary to meet the require¬ 
ments of the following distribution: Of all public bills and joint 
resolutions, there shall be distributed to the Senate document room 
two hundred and twenty-five copies; to the office of the Secretary of 
the Senate, fifteen copies; to the House document room, three hun¬ 
dred and eighty-five copies. Of Senate private bills, there shall be 
distributed to the Senate document room one hundred and seventy 
copies; to the office of the Secretary of the Senate, fifteen copies; to 
the House document room, one hundred copies; to the office of the 
superintendent of documents, ten copies. Of House private bills, 
and Senate and House concurrent and simple resolutions, there shall 
be distributed to the Senate document room one hundred and thirty- 
five copies; to the office of the Secretary of the Senate, fifteen copies; 
to the House document room, one hundred copies; to the office of the 
superintendent of documents, ten copies. 

Par. 2. Of all bills and resolutions, there shall be distributed to the 
Executive Mansion two copies, as now provided; to each executive 
department, and to each government establishment not connected with 
an executive department, including the Library of Congress as now 
provided, five copies, excepting to the State Department, to which 
there shall be distributed ten copies; and all of these copies shall be 
supplied as soon as printed. Whenever the head of an executive 
department, or other government establishment not connected with 
an executive department, desires a greater number of any class of 
bills or resolutions, for official use, they shall be furnished by the 
Public Printer on requisition. 

Par. 3. For the purposes of this act the term “ private bill ” shall 
be construed to mean all bills for the relief of private parties, bills 
granting pensions, bills removing political disabilities, and bills for 
the survey of rivers and harbors: Provided , That when such bills 
shall be reported to either House of Congress in consolidated or omni¬ 
bus form, the printing and distribution thereof shall be governed by 
the provisions of this section regulating the printing and distribution 
of public bills. 

Par. 4. All bills and resolutions shall be printed in bill form, and 
unless specially ordered by either House shall only be printed when 
referred to a committee, when favorably reported back, and after 
their passage by either House. 

Note. —This section is entirely in tlie nature of codification of existing law, 
except the provision in paragraph 3, which requires that private bills, when 
reported in consolidated or omnibus form, shall be printed and distributed 
under the same regulations as public bills. 

. Sec. 12. That there shall be printed in slip form, under the direc¬ 
tion of the Secretary of State, two thousand one hundred and ten 
copies of public laws and joint resolutions and seven hundred and 
sixty copies of private laws, treaties, and postal conventions, which 
shall be distributed as follows: To the House document room, one 
thousand copies of public laws and joint resolutions and one hundred 
copies of private laws, treaties, and postal conventions; to the Sen¬ 
ate document room, five hundred and fifty copies of public laws and 
joint resolutions and one hundred copies of private laws, treaties, 
and postal conventions; to the Department of State five hundred 
copies and to the Department of the Treasury sixty copies of public 


REPORT OP PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 25 

and priv a te laws, joint resolutions, treaties, and postal conventions, 
irublic and private laws and joint resolutions shall be numbered by 
the secretary of State consecutively, in their respective series, 
throughout an entire Congress. 

. This section provides for the printing of the public and private laws 

number of copies to be printed is fixed to correspond 
with the number provided for distribution, and is intended to correct a dis- 
icns anC mv D respect contained in the general printing act of January 12, 
+vT 0, Jsection also provides for the numbering of laws consecutively 
through an entire Congress instead of by sessions as heretofore, in order to 
comply with the system of numbering applied to bills, documents, and reports. 
This numbering of laws has been subject heretofore to custom alone. 

Sec. 13. That there shall be printed and bound of the Journals of 
the. Senate and House of Representatives a sufficient number of 
copies to provide for the following distribution: To the Senate fold¬ 
ing room, one copy for each Senator, and twenty-five additional 
copies; to the Senate library, ten copies; to the House folding room, 
one copy for each Representative and Delegate in Congress, and for 
each Resident Commissioner, and twenty-five additional copies; to 
the library of the House of Representatives, ten copies; to the De¬ 
partment of State, four copies; to the superintendent of documents, 
one copy for each of the depository libraries; to the Library of Con¬ 
gress, for its own use and for international exchange, sixty-two copies, 
except as such number shall be increased to not exceeding one hun¬ 
dred copies by request of the Librarian of Congress, as now provided. 

Par. 2. There shall also be printed of the Journals of the Senate 
and the House of Representatives and delivered in unbound form to 
the Library of Congress two copies as now provided; and twenty- 
five copies of the Journals of their respective Houses shall be printed 
and furnished to the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the 
House of Representatives, as the necessities of their offices may re¬ 
quire, as rapidly as signatures are completed. The “ usual number ” 
of copies of the J ournals of the Senate and the House of Representa¬ 
tives shall not be printed. 

Note.— This section provides for the printing and binding of the Journals of 
the Senate and the House, and is a codification of existing law, with these ex¬ 
ceptions : 

1. It is proposed to supply these important publications to all the depository 
libraries, instead of, as now, to three libraries in each State and Territory to 
be designated by the superintendent of documents. The reason for this will 
require no argument when the libraries of such States as New York are com¬ 
pared with those of some of the newer States and of the Territories. 

2. It provides for the distribution to Senators, Representatives, and Dele¬ 
gates, and Resident Commissioners, through the folding rooms, to be called for 
at their convenience. This amendment is in deference to the expressed wish of 
many Senators and Representatives, not only with relation to these publica¬ 
tions. but others with which the commission has had to deal. 

3. It is proposed to harmonize the authority for printing with the require¬ 
ments of distribution to correct a defect in the present law. 

Sec. 14. That the Director of the Census shall cause to be published, 
on the first Monday in December in each year in which a new Con¬ 
gress is to assemble, an Official Register of the United States, which 
shall contain a full and complete list of all officers, agents, clerks, 
and other employees of the Government whose salary or compensa¬ 
tion is paid from the Treasury of the United States, including mili¬ 
tary and naval officers of the United States, cadets, and midshipmen, 
and including bank examiners, receivers of national banks, and attor- 


26 REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 

neys for receivers, and clerks employed by such examiners and re¬ 
ceivers, or any person connected with the work of the office of the 
Comptroller of the Currency, in Washington or elsewhere, whose 
salary or compensation is paid from the Treasury of the United 
States, or assessed against or collected from existing or failed banks 
under their supervision or control: Provided , That the aforesaid list 
shall not include the substitute employees of the postal service, or any 
temporary employees of the Government whose appointment is for a 
period of less than six months. 

Par. 2. The aforesaid list shall exhibit the salary, compensation, 
and emoluments allowed to each of said officers, agents, clerks, and 
other employees, the State or country in which he was born, the State 
or Territory and congressional district and county in which he is a 
resident and from which he was appointed to office, and where em¬ 
ployed ; it shall contain a statement of the names, force, and condition 
of all ships and vessels belonging to the United States and when and 
where built, and a statement of all allowances made during the pre¬ 
ceding two fiscal years by the Postmaster-General to each contractor 
on contracts for carrying the mails, distinguishing the sum paid as 
stipulated by the original contract, and the sums paid as additional 
allowances. 

Par. 3. To enable the Director of the Census to compile and pub¬ 
lish the Official Register of the United States, the Secretary of the 
Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the head of 
each executive department of the Government, and the chief of each 
and every bureau, office, commission, or institution not embraced in 
an executive department, in connection with which salaries are paid 
from the Treasury of the United States shall, on the first day of 
July, nineteen hundred and nine, and biennially thereafter, supply 
to the Director of the Census the data* required to be published under 
the foregoing provisions of this section, in such form and under such 
classification as he may approve, and the blank forms necessary to 
the preparation of such data shall be furnished by the Director of the 
Census; and no extra compensation shall be allowed to any officer or 
clerk of the Bureau of the Census for compiling the Official Register 
of the United States. 

Par. 4. Of the Official Register there shall be printed and bound 
a sufficient number of copies to meet the requirements of the follow¬ 
ing distribution: To the President of the United States, four copies, 
one copy of which shall be for the library of the Executive Mansion; 
to the Vice-President, two copies; to each Senator, Representative, 
and Delegate in Congress, and to each Resident Commissioner, three 
copies, to be delivered to the folding rooms of the Senate and House 
of Representatives, respectively; to the Secretary and the Sergeant- 
at-Arms of the Senate and the Clerk and the Sergeant-at-Arms of 
the House of Representatives, one copy each; to each standing com¬ 
mittee of the Senate and the House of Representatives, one copy; 
to the libraries of the Senate and the House of Representatives, ten 
copies each; to the Department of State, one hundred copies; to the 
Treasury Department, one hundred and fifty copies; to the War De¬ 
partment, fifty copies; to the Navy Department, twenty copies; to 
the Department of Justice twenty copies; to the Department of the 
Interior, two hundred copies; to the Post-Office Department, one 
hundred copies; to the Department of Agriculture, fifteen copies; 


report of printing investigation commission. 27 

to the Department of Commerce and Labor, one hundred and fifty 

, pies , o the Smithsonian Institution, four copies; to the Govern- 

en linting Office, four copies; to the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission, two copies; to the Civil Service Commission, four copies; to 
y ® Commissioners of the District of Columbia, three copies; to the 

nternational Bureau of the American Republics, two copies; to the 
superintendent of documents, one copy for each depository library; 
to the Library of Congress, for its own use and for international 
exchange, sixty-two copies, except as such number shall be increased 
to not exceeding one hundred copies upon request of the Librarian of 
Cp n g ress - There shall also be printed and delivered to the Library 
or Congress two unbound copies, as now provided. The “ usual 
number of the Official Register shall not be printed. 

Note. This section is a codification of the various provisions of law 
J™ 1 relation to the compiling, editing, printing, and distribution of the 
Official Register, with the following proposed changes: The substitute em¬ 
ployees of the postal service, numbering approximately 50,000, are omitted. The 
testimony of the Post-Office Department is to the effect that these lists are 
subject to such frequent changes between the date of compilation and the date 
of publication as to be of little value. 

It is also proposed to eliminate the temporary employees of the executive 
departments whose appointment is for a period of less than six months. 

The arbitrary number of 3,000 copies heretofore provided is eliminated, and 
an arbitrary distribution is fixed with provisions for the printing of the copies 
necessary thereof. 

The only increases provided for are 1 copy additional to the Commissioners 
of the District of Columbia, 2 copies to the International Bureau of the Ameri¬ 
can Republics, and the number necessary to meet the requirements of the in¬ 
creased membership of the Senate and House. Instead of allotting 3 
copies to each Senator, Representative, and Delegate, 1 to be delivered to him 
through the Secretary of the Senate or the Clerk of the House and 2 to be 
supplied through the superintendent of documens to an individual and to a 
library, respectively, it is proposed that all 3 of these copies shall be placed 
to the credit of Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in their accounts in 
the folding rooms of their respective Houses for such distribution as they may 
direct. 

Sec. 15. That the Public Printer shall print and deliver, upon 
the order of the Vice-President, or of any Senator, Representative, 
or Delegate in Congress, or Resident Commissioner, extracts from the 
Congressional Record, or speeches or reports therein contained, and 
he shall also reprint, upon like order, any document or committee 
report already ordered printed by Congress, or either House thereof, 
or any accompanying papers printed therewith, or any part of such 
a document or committee report or accompanying papers, and the 
cost of such printing or reprinting shall be prepaid by the person 
ordering the same. 

Note.— This paragraph is a rewriting of existing law in relation to the 
printing for Senators, Representatives, and Delegates of extracts from the 
Congressional Record or from documents or reports printed by Congress. 

Par. 2. The Public Printer shall furnish, without cost, to the 
Vice-President, or to any Senator, Representative, or Delegate in 
Congress, or Resident Commissioner, upon his order, envelopes for 
mailing the Congressional Record, or extracts therefrom, or speeches 
or reports therein contained. Envelopes so furnished shall bear on 
the upper left-hand corner thereof, the following words, to wit: 
“Senate United States (or House of Representatives U. S.), Part of 
Congressional Record (or Public Document), Free,” and on the 


28 REPORT OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 

upper right-hand corner the letters “V. P.,” “ U. S. S. (or M. C.).” 
The Public Printer shall, upon request of the person ordering the 
same, also print thereon the facsimile signature of such person, the 
official title of a publication, the name of a State, Territory, or 
insular possession of the United States, a date, and extracts from 
the Congressional Record not exceeding fifty words. 

Note.— This paragraph provides for the printing of envelopes, and increases 
the number of words which may be printed thereon from 12 to 50, limiting 
them to extracts from the Congressional Record. 

Par. 3. The Public Printer shall furnish, without cost, to the Vice- 
President, or to any Senator, Representative or Delegate in Congress, 
or Resident Commissioner, upon his order, blank franks printed 
singly or on perforated sheets. Franks so furnished shall bear on the 
upper left-hand corner the following words, to wit: “ Public Docu¬ 
ment, Free; United States Senate (or House of Representatives, 
U. S.) and on the upper right-hand corner the letters “ V. P.,” 
“U. S. S., (or M. C.).” The Public Printer shall, upon request of 
the person ordering the same, also print thereon the facsimile signa¬ 
ture of such person, the official title of a publication, and the name 
of a State, Territory, or insular possesion of the United States. 

Note. —This paragraph provides for the printing of blank franks, singly or 
in perforated sheets, and is a rewriting of the various provisions of existing law. 

Par. 4. All moneys accruing under the provisions of this section 
shall be deposited by the Public Printer in the Treasury of the United 
States to the credit of the appropriation for the public printing and 
binding. 

Note. —This paragraph provides that the proceeds from the printing of 
speeches and extracts from the Congressional Record shall be placed to the 
credit of the appropriation for the public printing and binding, instead of to 
miscellaneous receipts as heretofore. Under the present law the Public Printer 
pays for the labor and material used in the execution of this printing, but the 
money received in payment must be deposited in the Treasury to the credit of 
miscellaneous receipts. This virtually makes the cost of speech printing a 
charge upon the appropriation* for the public printing and binding. 

Sec. 16. That the Vice-President, Senators, Representatives and 
Delegates in Congress, and Resident Commissioners, the Secretary 
of the Senate, and the Clerk of the House of Representatives may 
send through the mails, free of postage, all publications printed or 
issued by the Government or by the Smithsonian Institution or the 
International Bureau of the American Republics, provided that the 
name of the sender be written or printed on the wrapper or cover 
thereof, with the proper designation of his office or official title. The 
provisions of this section shall apply to each of the persons named 
herein from the beginning of the term of office for which he is elected 
until the first Monday in December following the expiration thereof. 

Par. 2. That the term “Resident Commissioner,” wherever used 
in this act, shall be construed to mean a commissioner from an in¬ 
sular or other possession of the United States who is now, or may 
hereafter be, entitled to a seat in the House of Representatives. 

Note.— This section is a rewriting of all the various provisions in relation to 
the franking privilege as applied solely to documents. The rewriting of these 
provisions introduces nothing now into the volume or character of the publi¬ 
cations that may be mailed under the franking privilege as now and heretofore 
construed. It extends the franking privilege to the Resident Commissioners 


report of printing investigation commission. 


29 


from tlie insular possessions, and defines their status for the purposes of this 
act. The Resident Commissioners now receive a quota of documents, and it is 
proposed that they shall mail them under their own franks in lien of having 
them mailed under the frank of Clerk of the House of Representatives, or other 
person entitled to the franking privilege. It is also proposed to include under 
the franking privilege the right of those upon whom it has been conferred to 
mail any government publication, whether printed by Congress or upon order 
of an executive department. The law as proposed conforms to the practice 
in this respect. 

Sec. IT. That the libraries of the executive departments, the United 
States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, the 
Philippine government at Manila, the International Bureau of the 
American Republics, and of all land-grant colleges are hereby con¬ 
stituted depositories of government publications, and the superin¬ 
tendent of documents shall supply to each of said libraries one copy 
of such publications as are supplied to other depository libraries. 

Note. —This section is a rewriting of existing law, with the removal of the limi¬ 
tation which named the libraries of “ the eight executive departments.” There 
are now nine executive departments, and the provision is made elastic to accom¬ 
modate any others which may be added. It is also proposed to include the 
library of the International Bureau of the American Republics, in recognition 
of an international agreement between the United States and the Latin- 
American countries. 

Sec. 18. That nothing contained in this act shall be held to con¬ 
travene the provisions of the resolutions numbered thirteen and 
fourteen, approved March thirtieth, nineteen hundred and six. 

Sec. 19. That the following provisions of law be, and the same are 
hereby, repealed: Sections ninety-seven, ninety-eight, one hundred 
and ninety-eight, five hundred and three, five hundred and eight, five 
hundred and ten, five hundred and eleven, thirteen hundred and 
thirty-two, thirty-seven hundred and ninety-one, thirty-seven hun¬ 
dred and ninety-two, thirty-seven hundred and ninety-six, and thirty- 
eight hundred of the Revised Statutes of the United States; so much 
of section thirty-seven hundred and ninety-eight of the Revised 
Statutes of the United States as provides for the printing and bind¬ 
ing of the Journals of the Senate and the House of .Representa¬ 
tives; so much of section thirty-eight hundred and five of the Re¬ 
vised Statutes of the United States as provides for the printing for 
distribution, and the distribution to the Secretary of State and to 
Congress, of copies of any act, joint resolution, or treaty; so much of 
section thirty-eight hundred and six of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States as provides for the printing for distribution, and the 
distribution to the Postmaster-General and to Congress, of copies of 
postal conventions; an act in relation to the Biennial Register, ap¬ 
proved January twenty-third, eighteen hundred and seventy-four; 
so much of an act making appropriation for the legislative, execu¬ 
tive, and judicial expenses of the Government, approved March third, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-five, as provides that the Congres¬ 
sional Printer shall print extracts from the Congressional Record 
for any Senator, Member of the House of Representatives, or Dele¬ 
gate, upon payment of the cost thereof by the person ordering the 
same; section seven of an act establishing post-roads, and for other 
purposes, approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven; 
an act authorizing the Public Printer to bind books, maps, charts, or 
documents published by authority of Congress, for Members of the 
Senate or House of Representatives, upon payment of the cost of 


30 REPORT OE PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 

such binding, approved December tenth, eighteen hundred and sev¬ 
enty-seven ; an act providing for the printing and distribution of the 
Bienial Register, approved December fifteenth, eighteen hundred 
and seventy-seven, and that part of an act approved June sixteenth, 
eighteen hundred and eighty, amendatory thereof; so much of an 
act to provide for deficiencies in appropriations for the service of 
the Government, approved December fifteenth, eighteen hundred 
and seventy-seven, as provides that public documents may be sent free 
through the mail by Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in Con¬ 
gress, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives; so much of an act making appropriations for the 
Post-Office Department, approved March third, eighteen hundred 
and seventy-nine, as provides for the free transmission through the 
mail of certain public documents, under the franks of Senators, Rep¬ 
resentatives, and Delegates in Congress, the Secretary of the Senate 
and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, and fixes the time 
when such privilege shall cease; the resolution numbered seventy-one, 
approved August fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two; so much 
ox an act to provide for deficiencies in appropriations for the service 
of the Government, approved August fifth, eighteen hundred and 
eighty-two, as provides that no extra compensation shall be allowed 
to any officer or clerk of the Department of the Interior for compiling 
the Biennial Register; so much of the acts making appropriations 
for the sundry civil expenses of the Government, approved August 
seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-tAvo, and March third, eighteen 
hundred and eighty-three, respectively, as relates to the binding of 
documents for Senators, Representatives, and Delegates; the resolu¬ 
tion numbered eleven, approved April fifteenth, eighteen hundred 
and eighty-six; the resolution numbered twenty, approved March 
third, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven; the resolution numbered 
ten, approved April fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight; an act 
to fix the number of the unbound and bound Journals of the Senate 
and House and provide for their distribution, approved October nine¬ 
teenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight; that part of an act mak¬ 
ing appropriation for the legislative, executive, and judicial ex¬ 
penses of the Government, approved March third, eighteen hundred 
and ninety-three, which provides that certain data shall be contained 
in the Official Register; sections thirty-seven, fifty-four, fifty-five, 
fifty-six, fifty-seven, eighty-five, ninety, and ninety-eight of an act 
providing for the public printing and binding and the distribution 
of public documents, approved January twelfth, eighteen hundred 
and ninety-five, and the act approved January twentieth, nineteen 
hundred and five, amendatory or sections fifty-four and fifty-five of 
said act approved January twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety- 
five; so much of section seventy-three of the said act approved Janu- 
, ary twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, as relates to the fur¬ 
nishing of data to be included in the Official Register, and the com¬ 
piling, editing, printing, and distribution thereof; that part of sec¬ 
tion seventy-three of the said act approved January twelfth, eighteen 
hundred and ninety-five, which authorizes the Public Printer to re¬ 
tain out of all documents, bills, and resolutions printed the number 
of copies absolutely needful for the official use of the Government 
Printing Office, not exceeding five of each, so far as it relates to Sen¬ 
ate and House documents, bills, and resolutions; so much of an act 


REPOET OF PRINTING INVESTIGATION COMMISSION. 31 

making appropriation for the sundry civil expenses of the Gov¬ 
ernment, approved March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, as 
amends section thirty-seven of the aforesaid act approved January 
twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five; the resolution numbered 
fourteen, approved February seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety- 
six ; that part of an act making appropriation for the legislative, ex¬ 
ecutive, and judicial expenses of the Government, approved April 
twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and two, which provides that cer¬ 
tain data relative to officers and employees of the office of the Comp¬ 
troller of the Currency, and other persons, shall be furnished to the 
Secretary of the Interior for publication in the Official Register; the 
resolution numbered thirty-six, approved June thirtieth, nineteen 
hundred and two; an act amending an act providing for the public 
printing and binding and the distribution of public documents, ap¬ 
proved January thirtieth, nineteen hundred and four; that part of 
an act providing for the public printing and binding and the distri¬ 
bution of public documents, approved April twenty-eighth, nineteen 
hundred and four, relating to the distribution of the Official Reg¬ 
ister ; so much of an act to amend section seven of an act entitled “An 
act to provide for a permanent Census Office,” approved June sev¬ 
enth, nineteen hundred and six, as provides for the publication of the 
Official Register by the Director of the Census; an act to provide for 
the distribution of public documents to the library of the Philippine 
government at Manila, Philippine Islands, approved January eight¬ 
eenth, nineteen hundred and seven; paragraph nine of section one of 
an act to amend an act providing for the public printing and binding 
and the distribution of public documents, approved March first, nine¬ 
teen hundred and seven, and all other laws and parts of laws in con¬ 
flict with the provisions of this act. 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


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